EVENTS

Jack’s Walk

It’s been above zero for a day or two and most of our snow has vanished. In its place we have soggy ground, slush, mush and mud. Lots of mud. Jack didn’t mind. He was so happy just being outside again that I didn’t want to limit his fun, so I let him get dirty. His wound has healed and water is cheap and we keep a stack of “dog towels” for just such an occasion. Sometimes a dog just needs to be a dog. I remember once taking my other lab Lucy, who died last year, to the dog park. There was a small white poodle there who clicked with Lucy and the two dogs romped and played right through a mud puddle. The poodles owner stormed over to me quite angry that my dog had gotten her dog dirty. I laughed and said something about how much fun the dogs had while getting dirty and that made her even angrier. I finally told her that she shouldn’t bring her dog to the off-leash park again with such a bad attitude. She bent down to the dog and made quite a show about not wanting to touch the ick while she attached his leash. Her face was all screwed up and she was breathing noisily and heavily with punctuated snorts. Finally, mumbling not quite under her breath, she and her dog walked away and got into a small white car. Lucy and I both had a laugh. This is one of my favourite stories and it’s possible that I’ve already told it. After some 200+ Jack’s Walk it’s getting hard to remember. If it is a repeat, I’m sorry. The photo is new, though. Happy Friday, everyone.

Yes, I agree: dogs are NOT “people in fur coats”. They are DOGS. Dogs like water, mud, dead animals, smelly things etc. (Actually, human children like these things too but are hardly ever allowed to explore them.) And frankly it’s up to us humans to figure this out. It’s not fair to expect a dog to go to the library and check out a book on human behavior to try and figure out why we are so weird.

One of the Redhead’s favorite stories, was of a time she went with a friend (who was driving) to buy fish (fresh from Lake Superior), and her friend’s dog rolled in the fish remains outside while they were in buying the fish. Quite the odoriferous trip home to her car according to her telling.